Random new word of the day

[Jim]

玄关 which came up in a news story about an assault, means the vestibule/hall just inside the front door, though I see an older meaning is the entry to the teachings of Buddhism which seems more obvious; presume former more quotidian use was derived from the latter, maybe jocularly.

[Tomsima]

I believe the 玄关 is specifically the traditional entrance hall which has a partition wall directly inside the door, to 玄, or 'shroud' outsiders from seeing into the inner area of the house from the street. Thats always how ive thought of it at least, perhaps there is a deeper meaning there!

[Jim]

On 9/4/2021 at 4:29 PM, Tomsima said:

I believe the 玄关 is specifically the traditional entrance hall which has a partition wall directly inside the door, to 玄, or 'shroud' outsiders from seeing into the inner area of the house from the street. Thats always how ive thought of it at least, perhaps there is a deeper meaning there!

From the context here it seemed to have been just a standard modern apartment but perhaps it's the sort of fancy-sounding term estate agents borrow then creeps into wider use.

[RedInkstone]

On 9/4/2021 at 6:50 PM, Jim said:

 

On 9/4/2021 at 5:29 PM, Tomsima said:

I believe the 玄关 is specifically the traditional entrance hall which has a partition wall directly inside the door, to 玄, or 'shroud' outsiders from seeing into the inner area of the house from the street. Thats always how ive thought of it at least, perhaps there is a deeper meaning there!

Expand  

From the context here it seemed to have been just a standard modern apartment but perhaps it's the sort of fancy-sounding term estate agents borrow then creeps into wider use

 

Our real estate agent also used that when we were looking for apartments. And I’ve heard it my Chinese teacher say it, when we talked about how to set up a flat in a Chinese manner. Both times it seemed just like a regular word to me, so maybe it was just carried over from its spiritual use and does not denote anything fancy nowadays except that is adheres to the traditional aspect of shrouding off the rest of the apartment?

[alantin]

On 9/4/2021 at 6:29 PM, Tomsima said:

I believe the 玄关 is specifically the traditional entrance hall which has a partition wall directly inside the door, to 玄, or 'shroud' outsiders from seeing into the inner area of the house from the street. Thats always how ive thought of it at least, perhaps there is a deeper meaning there!

 

Hmm.. Interesting. That is a common word in Japanese and means the area or room immediately inside the front door of a home where you leave your shoes.

Based on a picture search on Google with that Chinese term, it seems to mean close enough the same thing.

[Woodford]

This gem showed up in my SRS flashcard review today, and I think it's so fun:

 

火炎焱燚

 

Meaning: "Hot (i.e. popular). Emphatic form of 火. (neologism c. 2016)"

[calculatrix]

I found another one from the same family:

又双叒叕

Meaning: "again and again and again"

Are there more of them?

[calculatrix]

Found one more:

人从众?

Meaning: "Huge crowd of people"

 

Coooool.

 

[Jim]

老虎机 - slot machine; surprised I'd never encountered that before.

[Publius]

On 11/9/2021 at 9:39 AM, Jim said:

老虎机 - slot machine; surprised I'd never encountered that before.

Probably because gambling is illegal. My impression is it comes from Cantonese. 老虎 because it eats your money so relentlessly. Same vein as the one-armed bandit.

[大块头]

On 11/8/2021 at 9:49 PM, Publius said:

because it eats your money so relentlessly

 

similar to 油老虎

[889]

Such simple characters but such a puzzling term.

 

学区房

 

https://baike.baidu.com/item/学区房/199664

[Balthazar]

发展中国家 - developing country

 

A simple word, but my mind automatically extracted 中国 as China which made me take a while to figure out the meaning.

 

 

Edit: A search for "发展中国家" on Chinese-forums makes it clear that I'm not the first one to be befuddled by this word

[imron]

There a quite a few phrases like this in Chinese, including the more comical 先进性教育 which was mandatory learning for various government officials several years back. 

[889]

The Guardian discusses 摆烂 and 躺平.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/26/the-rise-of-bai-lan-why-chinas-frustrated-youth-are-ready-to-let-it-rot

[roddy]

On 5/20/2022 at 9:21 AM, Balthazar said:

Edit: A search for "发展中国家" on Chinese-forums makes it clear that I'm not the first one to be befuddled by this word

Welcome to a most exclusive club.

[TheBigZaboon]

Sorry to be late to the party (postings from the end of 2021) concerning both Japanese and Chinese entrances separated by a partition that disallows moving on a direct line from the vestibule to the interior of the dwelling. Over the years, I've heard from both Japanese and Chinese informants that "spirits" or other non-corporeal entities could only move in straight lines, therefore a partition that prevented such movement was there for protection. 

 

In Japan, recently, apartments were often too small to have the space for such shenanigans (genkan with a change in direction required), but the feeling (kimochi), was still there. 

 

 

TBZ

[Guest realmayo]

雅贼  yǎzéi n. thief who steals only books and works of art

[Jan Finster]

不管三七二十一勇往直前 = no matter what

[889]

Saw this in the Guardian of all places today:

 

run 学 ： studying how to leave China

 

https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/457951469